Samba & Shoot-outs

Two weeks in to 2010 already - time seems to just be flying by. And what has this new year brought so far? Well, starting from the beginning with the striking of midnight on the 1st of January, a myriad of kaleidoscopic pyrotechnics fire into the night sky over the length of Copacabana and Ipenema beaches. A spectacle for the two million strong crowd that lasts for quarter of an hour, followed by samba dancing, hugging all in sight and wading into the ocean, clutching lilies and roses, throwing flowers into the water to make new year wishes. I was joined by three girls from Ecuador, Sweden and America who were staying at the hostel - all feverent about keeping a steady flow of beer, caprinhas and sparkling wine throughout the night in spite of their 9am departure for the airport in the morning. The atmosphere on the beach was awesome - an incredible experience and I can't have imagined a better way to begin the decade (particularly assisted by stealthily cutting past the 3 hour long queue for the metro for a quick getaway home!)

Needless to say, the first full day of the year was a write of, spent re-hydrating and avoiding excessive sunlight. In the days that have followed I have made numerous trips, including to Jardim Botânico (the botanical gardens), Museu de Arte Moderna and Academia do Samba Salgueiro (Salgueiro Samba School). The gardens I would recommend to any visitor in Rio. The 140 hectare UNESCO protected site is a dazzling collection of eclectic varieties of plant life from around the world, containing well over 6,000 different species of plants, compartmentalised into separate cacti, orchid, palm-tree, Japanese and rose gardens, amongst others, and more than half of the site being an uncultivated Atlantic Forest running up the breath-taking Corcovado mountain.


The Jardim Botanico

The MAM (Modern Art Museum) was a somewhat strange experience whereby a strict set of rules were imposed with ruthless rigidity, having an unfortunate dampening affect on the experience. No photos, no phones, no water bottles, no talking, and especially no diving in the shallow end - some of the more textural pieces in the first gallery were worth getting close to in order to see the finer details, but this would cause a petulant fuss by the curator's weaselly minions who would quickly scutter over to usher me away to a more acceptable distance. The same went for displays of photographs in glass cabinets on tables where people would rest their hands on the woodwork in order to lean over to get a better view - more scuttling and ushering of startled visitors would ensue. The collection is relatively small in comparison to its counterparts in other major cities and sadly bereft of numerous great works that had once inhabited its walls, from Picasso and Dalí to Miró and Magritte, an unfortunate fire in the 70s saw to the end of this beautiful era. Impoverished of the works of many great Brazilian artists (with the exception of Carlos Vergara), there was an overabundance of French collections, and though they had their merits, it was disappointing to see such a lack of local talent, especially being that these is such a saturation of wonderful home-grown art in and around Santa Teresa. In its defence, a saving grace of the museum, it has to be said, was the blissful air conditioning saving me from the 43 degree heat that was sweltering everyone outside - Rio in the height of the summer is becoming really quite extreme.


Untitled by Carlos Vergara

Academia do Samba Salgueiro is the samba school who won the 2009 Rio Carnival and are a now synonymous with the partying spirit of the city. On a trip to the school with some of the guests at the house, we squeezed ourselves into the packed hall that easily fit 2,000 people, and watched the Salgueiro supporters dance the night away. The percussion troop, the bateria, were playing their carnival procession music lead by their samba queen and were later accompanied by the gorgeous group of female samba dancers in full dress. The infectious rhythm and fast-paced, alluring dancing is incomparable to anything else I have seen - and every Brazilian can do it. From young girls to old men in their seventies, everyone in the academy was moving with mesmerising skill and speed. Those who know me well will be fully aware that I am far from a distinguished dancer, even when presented with the most simple steps, and needless to say, I joined in and danced all night having a ball, though clearly failing to impress in this new environment... A week after the visit to the academy another group of us went to the Sambadrome, an Oscar Niemeyer building with a stretch of road nearly a kilometer long where the schools parade down during carnival. This was on the night when Salgueiro were performing a dry-run (without costumes or floats) of their upcoming performance. Everyone builds up the hype and the size of the carnival, though I was still astonished at the scale of the event. Thousands upon thousands of dancers trailing as far as the eye could see passed through the Sambadrome with an electrifying presence. If this is what the event looks like without floats or costumes then the main event in February, combined with the attendance of a dozen schools, will truely live up to its title of 'The Greatest Party on Earth'.


One of the Salgueiro dancers at the Acadamy


The Sambadrome of Rio de Janeiro

Rio has a peculiar habit of oscillating from showing its incredible beauty, fun and passionate side, to revealing its more rough, deprived and dangerous elements without notice. Still buzzing the next day from the night at the Sambadrome, I took a walk from Santa Teresa to Lapa and was soaking in the sun and sights during my descent whilst listening to music on my phone. I had barely made it 5 minutes down the hill before I saw agitated policemen armed with rifles peering around walls along the road looking down at the local favelas, when one gestured to me urgently to put away my headphones. It didn't take long to discover that there was a gunfight in progress in the shanty towns. In the arid mid-day heat, plumes of dust were rising behind distant men running behind buildings for cover, followed by multiple kinds of fire, from pistols, machine guns and high powered rifles. There was no police presence in the epicentre - this was clearly a gang or mafia matter that are often let be by the authorities when contained within the favelas - and there was an strange lack of screaming or shouting, the only sound amongst the gunfire being cockerels and chickens making a rucas in their pens. The road down the hill was full of men from Santa Teresa overlooking the events in silence, understandably concerned about the events unfolding below. This was another eye-opener, reminding me that you cannot allow yourself to become too relaxed in this city and that no matter how much fun you are having, to always have an element about you of being alert and cautious.

Loathed to end on a solemn note, we did have fun this week when we went to look into the garden at the bottom of the house. First drawn out by toucans occupying the trees outside with their jet black and bright orange feathers, we were also greeted by small monkeys (whose species I am yet to determine - see picture below). After some time spent coaxing them closer, the guests and I spent the morning feeding them all pieces of banana. Being in a grand capital city, it is peculiar to think that we have such visitors, though Tijuca is such a dominant forest in the near distance and brings extraordinary wildlife to out door. Toucans, monkeys and geckos being more popular, giant ants, mosquitoes and moths bigger than your foot less so.

I am looking forward to what next week will bring and will be in touch again soon, hopefully with more exciting stories and pictures. Until then, take care everyone.